Heat fizzle late amid Bucks’ closing sizzle, falling 128-117 in Milwaukee
· Yahoo Sports
The Miami Heat had all their weapons; the Milwaukee Bucks were lacking their leading man.
No, this should not have been this difficult, but for a team desperately attempting to climb from the middle of the pack in the Eastern Conference, consistency remains an abstract for the Heat.
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So no four-game winning streak for Erik Spoelstra’s team. Instead a fourth-quarter collapse and 128-117 loss Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum.
Unable to match the scoring sizzle of the Bucks’ Kevin Porter, the Heat instead fizzled on a night they were almost completely at full health, late missed free throws sealing the loss.
In Giannis Antetokounmpo’s injury absence, the Bucks got 32 points from Porter, including a decisive late four-point play.
Norman Powell led the Heat with 26 points, with Bam Adebayo adding 18, Andrew Wiggins 16, and Tyler Herro and Kel’el Ware 14 apiece.
With both the Heat and the Bucks factoring into the play-in race, the Heat could have clinched the three-game season, having previously defeated the Bucks in November. Now it will come down to the teams’ March 12 meeting in Miami.
Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s game:
1. Game flow: The Bucks led 30-29 after the first quarter and 63-58 at halftime, after falling behind by 12 in the second period. The Heat then pushed back to a 93-89 lead going into the fourth.
From there, the Heat pushed to a 101-92 lead at the start of the fourth quarter, only to see the Bucks rally back to a 103-102 lead.
Four consecutive Powell free throws later had the Heat up 115-112, only to see the four-point play by Porter put the Bucks up 118-116, with that momentum eventually pushing Milwaukee to a 124-116 lead when the Heat called time with 1:18 to play.
The Heat closed 5 of 20 from the field and 3 of 14 on 3-pointers in losing the fourth quarter 39-24, with the Heat’s final basket coming with 6:34 left.
2. Third time: The game was the third back for Herro after being sidelined since Jan. 15 with a rib issue, again playing off the bench.
After a 5-of-15 shooting struggle in Saturday night’s victory over the Grizzlies, Herro this time opened 1 of 5 from the field before then converting a pair of 3-pointers to spark a Heat second-quarter rally.
Herro closed 3 of 9 on 3-pointers and 2 of 8 on two-point attempts, the shot off again.
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3. Mitchell back: Davion Mitchell was back after missing Saturday’s game due to illness.
While Spoelstra has emphasized the team’s strength in numbers at point guard, he also said decisions would have to be made on a game-to-game basis.
So this time, rookie Kasparas Jakucionis went from Saturday starter to Tuesday reserve. That had Dru Smith, a Saturday reserve, initially out of the rotation, just as he was in Friday night’s victory in Atlanta in Mitchell’s previous appearance.
Smith then got token second-half minutes ahead of Jakucionis.
Mitchell closed with eight points and eight assists/
4. Double big: Having largely taken an either/or approach in recent games with his centers, Spoelstra this time had both Adebayo and Ware on the floor together early in the fourth quarter.
The rare double-big lineup came with the Heat lacking forward Nikola Jovic, who returned to Miami earlier in the day due to back pain.
Ware then was pulled with 7:12 to play, when Spoelstra reinserted the remainder of his starters alongside Adebayo.
Ware closed with 14 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes.
5. Big one next: Up next for the Heat is the team they are chasing to avoid a fourth consecutive trip to the play-in round, with Thursday night’s game in Philadelphia against the 76ers.
With the series limited to three games this season and the Heat having won 127-117 Nov. 23 in Philadelphia, the Heat could clinch the tiebreaker Wednesday. The teams also meet March 30 at Kaseya Center.